Lithuanian SF authors of the last 10 years (1985-1995) are clearly divided into two groups. The first group consists of the older generation of writers and the second one is represented by younger SF writers. These two groups are divided by a long period of about 30 years. It means that several generations in between have had no SF writers at all. The explanation might be that for some time Lithuanian SF literature was maintained only by enthusiasts, as it was not considered serious and was thought to be fit only for upper grade schoolchildren. There had only been very few translations from foreign languages, and formally nobody stimulated any interest in the SF & fantasy, or perhaps one could say it was more or less rejected.
Only in recent years, when SF literature had broken the wall of official intolerance and had become more popular in Lithuania, there have appeared, and are still appearing, some young creative people, who devote their pens to SF & fantasy. But now we have come across some other obstacles: the publishing conditions are far from favourable and not every writer can have his book published. There are no more ideological obstacles, but instead we have plenty of financial problems. We have only a few magazines that publishes works of SF & fantasy and we have no specialised SF publication in Lithuania now.
The most characteristic feature of the creative works of the older generation of writers, especially those who have already published their creative works, is to obtain the demands of a classical novel or short story (the classical short story is the prevalent genre in Lithuanian SF literature). All those pieces belong to SF. In their work, our writers often use a scientific idea or a hypothesis and in its background analyse the psychological, ethical or philosophical problems.
Kazys Paulauskas "The effect of Deimas"
Let's take an example, the SF story "The effect of Deimas" (1986) by Kazys Paulauskas (born in 1934), a well known SF writer and a teacher. Not only are there scientific ideas in this short story, the writer also tries to solve some moral and ethical problems. In the "Deimas" scientists make experiments with elementary particles and the experiment becomes uncontrollable, a threat to people arises. This situation leads to various speculations: maybe those experiments have opened a gate to inhabitants in some parallel universe? Maybe aliens from some other planets have taken interest in the experiment? The characters start discussing if they should stop the experiment or to go on, at the risk of the lives of many people. The latter road is chosen. At last the scientists stop, when they find a microworld, that from the look like an elementary particle. From such a particle, existing in the rocks of Mars, some intelligent beings call and hinder the experiment.
There is contact. But not everyone is morally prepared for it. Some scientists decide to get rid of the unwelcome guests and even to destroy the microparticle with the universe it contains (as it is hampering the experiment). The main character resists these intentions and "rehabilitates" humanity in the sight of the aliens. Ethical problems are solved in the background of scientific ideas.
In her creative works, Loreta Latonaite (born in 1934), a writer and a physician, also tries to solve psychological and moral-ethical problems. The two collections of short stories "The Death of Superman" (1990) and "A Snowman" (1995) were published during the time period mentioned above. For this writer scientific (mostly medical) research is important as a means to reveal the ethics, feelings and psychology of the characters. For example, in the short story "The Death of a Superman" genetic experiments are described. Due to a successful combination of genes of high intellect and excellent physical health a gifted child is born. But nobody had thought about the aspect of morality. It turns out that his father-donor had been a worshipper of fascism. When the child grows older he uses his abilities for cruelty. He kills his step-sister and even seeks to kill his mother and his step-father. But his step-father succeeds to forestall events in time. While trying to save his own and his wife's lives he annihilates the moral degenerate. But he doesn't feel right, as he has used violence. In this short story the writer seeks to find out if violence can ever be justified.
This author is also interested in the psychology of artists. The short story "By the Sea" tells us about an artist who dilutes his paints with his own blood. His paintings are wonderful. But is it really worth it, to sacrifice one's own life for the art? The artist is sure that it is.
In the second collection of short stories one's duties towards a human being or to humanity, and responsibility for one's crimes are the dominating themes. The author turns back to the theme of genetic engineering by which unreal people are created. But the medicine itself is not evil because it helps, and sometimes even saves people. Contact lenses help the main character in the short story "Lampeduza" to survive in a strange planet, because when wearing them he sees the Earth's landscape instead of strange, dreary views. And the moral problems are not forgotten either. The short story "Plastic Luck" tells about a man who survives heart transplantation. Instead of his real heart, he now has a plastic one. Because of this, his wife scoffs at him and looks down upon him. That fills the man with grief, and he suffers from inferiority complex. But maybe it is his wife who has a heart of plastic, and so maybe the his family luck is plastic too? In her short stories, the author speaks openly about the innermost feelings of man, and about the details of one's intimate life.
Saulius Kanisauskas "Zvaigzdinis' Case"
This feature is not very characteristic to Lithuanian SF. The science populariser Saulius Kanisauskas (born 1944) in the short story "Zvaigzdinis' Case" (1992) discusses philosophical problems and relates them to moral-ethical ideas. There are plenty of meditations of the fate of a man and humanity. The problem is this: who is (or can be called) a real man, and who is a stranger among people? We also find some scientific reasonings and theories: the tunnels through space and time; discussions of what the past, the future, the present is and what time is. In such a background the story of Benius and the narrator, militia lieutenant-colonel is revealed. Maybe both of them are humans (at least they themselves hope so) or maybe they are aliens. There are a lots of hints, preteritions, queer events, but everything becomes clear only at the very end of the short story. But this is only the shell of the story. The main point is the idea that no one has any right to poke into another's fate, into the development of humanity. No one has any right to speed it up. Everything will be discovered and realised by a man himself in a right time.
The genre of SF has served some writers of this generation as a shield to the politics. They used it to express their protest against the Moscow dictatorship. But their creative works cannot be called anti-Utopias, because life is described comparatively delicately, drastic details are not used. Most likely they can be called "social SF". Nevertheless there are some exceptions.
Banguolis Balasevicius "Beyond time's river"
SF is used as a shield by one famous SF writer, translator, journalist, and politician Banguolis Balasevicius (born in 1944). There are two short stories in his book "Beyond time's river" that have the same purpose - to show what life is, when everything is planned on beforehand, if the fate of people (and not only of people) is regulated by some Center (it's not important whether it's a human or a computer) and if people surrender to such a system.
There are even clearer hints in the short story "Beyond time's river". Two astronauts are to land on a Brownish planet, to find out why Lidenas, an astronaut who landed there earlier, stayed there by his own free will and sent a report to the Earth informing not to look for him. The two astronauts reached the Brownish planet and find out that some time ago it was settled by the crew of the crashed starship. The spacemen colonised the planet and enslaved the natives. It turned out that Lidenas had become a governor - "The Father" and was content with his status. The greater part of the short story is given to the descriptions of the scenes of natives' exploitation, to the history of their enslavement. Almost revolutionary their mood is revealed. One of the astronauts is an expert in the history of the twentieth century. He compares the things he sees on the Brownish planet with the events of the twentieth century on Earth. Having met Lidenas, the astronauts fail to persuade him to change anything. To tell the truth they didn't try very hard to, after the natives told them about their planned revolution. The guilty ones will be punished, because it is not permitted to interfere in life on a strange planet. With these thoughts the astronauts leave the Brownish planet.
This short story is a real allusion to the life in the former USSR, though only Apartheid and fascism are mentioned. The name of the planet is not randomly chosen (in Lithuanian the words "Rusvoji" ("the Brownish") and "Rusija" ("Russia") have the same corn. And the title of Lidenas - "The Father" - is not a coincidence either.
In his book "The Dragons of Laukesa" (1992) the writer K. Paulauskas speaks rather softly about politics. It can be deduced that the story takes place in Lithuania. The subject of the book is based on folk-lore stories about the mythological being - the dragon who carries wealth to his master. The description of the dragons in flight is very similar to some stories told by people who have seen a UFO, and on the basis of the UFO theme the writer connects two periods of Lithuanian history, the two periods darkened by the wardship of Russia: the end of the nineteenth century (Lithuania was occupied by the Czar's Russia, and the middle of the twentieth century (the occupation by the USSR).
The main character of the novel is transferred from the nineteenth century Lithuania to a distant planet. It is difficult to leave Earth, but he is under threat of being deported to the Siberia, because of spreading Lithuanian nationalistic ideas. The writer describes the man's feelings on the strange planet, where his body is changed (only his appearance remaines human), where he is oppressed by a tremendous responsibility (together with the others, he tries to prevent a catastrophe which might annihilate all life on Earth) and by overwhelming nostalgia. Eventually, his sense of duty cannot hold the nostalgia down, and the man asks the aliens to transfer him back to the Earth. On his native planet a long time has passed, his relatives have already died and his native land itself has changed. Now it belongs to a kolkhoz, his native language is cluttered up with foreign words, and its people are crushed. The novel has no clear ending: the man walks along the dusty furrows hoping to find a green oasis anywhere and have a rest. Most likely such an indefinite ending was caused by life in Lithuania in the period when the novel appeared. There's no way out, only chaos.
And then comes an exception to everything we have told so far, the book "Samara people", published in 1991. It is the last book by Vytautas Norbutas (born in 1939). He died that year. This author is considered as the most famous of all Lithuanian SF authors. We could even say that the book "Samara people" is distinguished among Lithuanian SF as the most complex piece of work in all respects: in expression (almost every second word is international, there are lots of scientific terms and terms created by the author himself), in structure (there are several subject lines which are joined together in the end) and in problems (philosophical, moral-ethical and scientific ideas are raised and discussed). Besides, it is the "sharpest" book; it mey be termed anti-Utopia.
In this book, a society governed by some Firm which creates fancy-visions and forces them on to the people, is described. We see the decrepit president of the Firm (some governors of the former USSR can be recognised), a toady, time-server director of one of the Firm's branches, and other employees among which there are only two able to see things sensibly, and the two representatives of the public. There is no flash of hope in this life: nature is destroyed, people are immortal (they have mastered metempsychosis), but it does only harm, there is no progress, only general regress. There are people who are not content with this way of life, and they bring much trouble to the Firm.
And there is one more problem: to find some source for getting brains. Especially the old president is in bad need of a new brain. Neither quasimeron, nor a virtual brain are welcome. Some people already are making noise outside the Firm's walls. They hold a protest action and the president has to hurry to renew himself. He is unable to choose the employee whose brain he could take. It turns out that all the employees of the Firm have quasimeron brains. With this metaphor the novel ends.
This novel can be considered both as an anti-Utopia, and as a book about a human being, what he is allowed to do to himself and to other people.
The characters of all the personages mentioned up until now are quite static. For a change; in the first book by the Doctor of Economy, Professor Vytautas Azusilis (born in 1929) "The Roneta", the characters are quite dynamic and even contradictory. The structure of the novel is rather complicated. The story develops in two directions: we follow life on Earth and on Roneta. In creating the peripetias of his main character's fate, the author reveals exhaustively the feelings and experiences of the inhabitants of both planets. A lot of place is devoted to scientific ideas, too. The reader is often stopped not only by the exhaustive descriptions of the appearance of the main character or landscapes, but olso by scientific reasonings, for example, about the workings of some piece of equipment.
One shouldn't get the impression that all the books by the authors of this generation are serious. However one cannot say that there is much of entertainment or adventure in these books (with Western terminology). We notice the absence of serious philosophical, etc. problems in those creative works where the story takes the main place and much attention is attached to the quick wits.
Silvestras Sinkus "An Island of Flowers"
This can be said about the books by the engineer-mechanic and writer Silvestras Sinkus (born in 1944). The two collections "The Blue Coast - the Republic of Strange Adventures" (1991) and "An Island of Flowers" (1993) contains various short stories. Along with the serious short stories in which the author tries to solve philosophical problems of the reason of life, etc. there is a series of detective SF short stories, the "Sketches of the Blue Coast". The short stories in this series are held together by the main characters: the detective-lieutenant Irmantas, the colonel Alfredas and the inventor Fanteris. The latter sometimes invents the most incredible things (for example, he invents a camera which by taking a photograph makes people disappear, and later to reappear in reality from the film). It is no surprise that such inventions cause lots of problems and sometimes are followed by some queer adventures... It is Irmantas who tries to solve these problems and explain the strange events, but sometimes he is tempted to use Fanteris' inventions to his own ends.
The everyday life's surroundings dominate in the second collection of short stories. Only some unusual detail or an unexpected event determine the SF genre of the short story (for example a genetics engineer unexpectedly finds out that his patient is an alien). There are more stories about the adventures of Fanteris and Irmantas. The inventor and the detective are constantly quarrelling, but they can't do without each other. They help not only each other, but other people too, to solve various (even the most intimate) problems. Some of the short stories of this series are just adventurous tales full of spicy details.
Stanislovas Sliuzinskas "Alytus
in SF"
One more writer belonging to the older generation, is journalist Stanislovas Sliuzinskas (born in 1928). The first book by him "Alytus in SF" was published in 1993. The author lives in this town himself, so he doesn't grudge the nicest words describing the town and it's surroundings. Some of the short stories resemble legends or pieces of mythology, in the others we find many details characteristic to SF. But all these details serve only as a background to reveal the nowadays problems: the poverty, both material and spiritual. Some of these short stories resemble humorous sketches, maybe because of the strong journalistic capabilities of the author. There are several short stories just full of the play of imagination, incredible events are described (for example travelling into the future or into the past, meeting with a long dead person and even drinking beer together with him, a visit in Hell, conversations with Lucifer, acquiring a dragon...). There are several short stories where the details of the painful past are quite clear, for example the killing of Jews during the second World War. The author pays little attention to the delicacies of SF technique: for example when flying to Mars to survey the piece of a garden, they use an old "Moskwitch" with built in antigravity.
Collection of SF short stories "Turangitas"
As a link connecting the creative works by the professional writers and the amateurs (who have published only a few of short stories) is the "Turangitas" collection of SF short stories. It covers various subjects, and different problems. In the short story "One out of Endliness" Evaldas Liutkevicius tries to solve the problem of responsibility of an intelligent being. And the problem of the short story "Two hundred twenty two, Sirius" by V.Norbutas is the responsibility of people for a robot they have created. The idea of human strength and faith is emphasised in most stories in the collection. It is asserted that neither human efforts nor human sacrifice are ever meaningless.
The people in the short story "The Fate of the Ship" by L. Latonaite use all their force and by mass telekinesis escape from a trap of supervacuum. And the short story "The Raspberry Colour Death" by the well known writer Vladas Minius is a warning. Because of endless use of antibiotics the human defence system gets mutated and people die. Experience andthe intuition helps a doctor to find the reason of the numerous deaths. Nevertheless there are victims. And the personages of the short story "Turangitas" by Vaclovas Mikailionis are looking for some turangitas - something that people cannot do without. But they fail to find it. And perhaps it is impossible to find it, because people are too different and they need different things.
The same idea is confirmed by the short story "The Only Moment" by Laima Bereniene. A human being is seraching for a contact with other intelligfent beings for his whole life, and at last he is happy to give all his energy to an alien. This is the only moment in his life that makes sense. In the background of serious, even philosophical stories, the humorous story "Repeated Spaces" by Saulius Jusionis is distinguished. Some creatures from a parallel universe appear in the main character's room, they are sure that the natives are stupid, unintelligent beings. But quite soon it becomes clear that they are mistaken: such visits are so common on Earth that the people are sick and tired of them. The main character knows very well how to treat the unwelcome guests: he sprays them with zero space varnish and decides to send them to the Council of Contacts... but first he takes them to the Museum of Natural History.
For the young writers, SF is not only a means to solve serious philosophical, etc. problems. For them it is some entertainment too. (Maybe they are influenced by the numerous adventurous SF books by foreign writers, and by the video films available nowadays.) They like to experiment with language, style, and composition.
The youngest among the young writers is perhaps Mindaugas Peleckis (born in 1975). The first book by him, "The Unicorn" (1990) was published when the author was a student in secondary school. Now, M.Peleckis studies journalism at the Vilnius University.
The main part of "The Unicorn" contains poems and fairy-tales. The SF pieces are not so numerous. But it is enough to asess the capabilities of the young author's imagination. For example: While a robot is sleeping his eyes flee away from him. And basketball, dunking lightning into a lamp-shade... The characters of the story "The Mysterious Tunnel" are children, they meet mysterious dwarfs, travel on some strange planets where they meet both good and evil creatures, they visit the future where they experience lots of adventures, and at last come back to their native town Siauliai. The author has created quite many terms himself, titles and even words of the alien planets languages, which makes this book seem quite original.
The second book by the same author, "A Devil's Egg" was published in 1992. The short stories in this book could be called "fruits of free imagination". In most of them the author's pen is not limited by any traditions of the SF literature, nor by any requirements of composition. These stories are really very short, like pictures from the personages' life, the subject is not widely displayed. And these personages are not only human, but also representatives from other planets, beowolves, zombies. The themes are very different: beginning with the finding of a friend (even among the zombies), ending with the eternal fight between good and evil. The closest to traditional SF is the short story "The Blossoming Mist". It tells about two brothers who meet an alien creature and give him the name Mist. Later they travel together in the Universe and experience lots of adventures. According to the author himself, he is creating the theory of the essence of the world, and calls it fatistics. His turn for theories is quite noticeable, even in the short stories. The short story "The Music of Pluto" (with a subtitle "The Harmony of Prosa") is an example. There, the history of space is set forth as the author imagines it. In this book the elements of journalistic genre are quite visible.
With this collection of short stories, M.Peleckis' interest in SF ended. The third book by this author was a collection of poems.
Evaldas Jankauskas "The Lord's
Heart"
There are some elements of fantasy in the creative works by our young uthors, but they are not numerous. In 1990 a collection of short stories "The Lord's Heart" by Evaldas Jankauskas (born in 1973) was published. All the short stories in this collection are adventurous, there are several ones with a tint of fantasy. One of the especially distinguished is the short story "The Lord's Heart". Having come to another planet on a spaceship, Andrius is invited to visit the Lord's palace, but there he is caught in a trap. The host, who seemed so friendly at first, proved to be a villainous sorcerer. And all his subordinates are dead persons revived in their old bodies by the sorcerer with the help of witchcraft and the magic Stone. The Lord wishes to worm a secret out of Andrius, namely where the designs to a superbomb are hidden. Andrius succeeds to escape. And there his adventures start. Eventually, he gets commissioned to destroy both the designs of the superbomb and the Stone. It becomes clear that the stone is a heart, a symbol of all the hearts of tyrants.
The author doesn't tell us if it is destroyed. The story ends abruptly in the very culmination. Perhaps a clear ending was impossible in this short story. One of the original features of the short stories by this author is that he succeeds to find something unexpected in some everyday condition or in some well known situation used many times by SF writers, something very far removed from remainder of the short story, shocking the reader. For example, in the short story "The Little Fir-tree" we see the world after the atomic war. Ruins. Cannibalism. People feel like strangers. And in this background a child finds a miracle: an intact placard of a little fir-tree decorated with snow.
Jurgita Viksraityte "The
Secret of the Black Spot. The Story of Fleeing"
There have been attempts to write shallow adventurous SF, where the adventures have no deeper sense. An example of such a try is the first book by Jurgita Viksraityte (born in 1973) "The Secret of the Black Spot. The Story of Fleeing" published in 1990. "The secret of the Black Spot" is a SF novel full of dangers and adventures in deep space, without any deeper problems. The author tells her story concisely, describing only the main points.
Even more concise is the second novel, "The Story of Fleeing". There, the author limits herself to dialogues or to describing the actions of the personages. The whole story is about fleeing: the two main characters (a boy who has become a biorobot, and a girl) tries to escape from the FBI agents who are chasing them. Using a time machine, the fugitives find themselves in 1863 where there they run over both the Confederate Army and the North State Army. At last they succeed to find the hidden time machine and return to their own time. But the FBI agents are there, waiting for them. The chase goes on. The novel is full of shooting, various tricks with motorcycles and cars, and cold blooded murder.
In both novels all the attention of the author is paid to the adventures, neither the psychology of the characters, nor the motives of their actions interest her very much.
Perhaps a most extraordinary piece of Lithuanian SF is the book by Daiva Skuolyte "A Toothless Fly on the Little Finger", published in 1991. The plot is rather simple: a woman has a son, Zigas, but latter it becomes clear that his real father is not his mother's husband, but an alien. As an adult, Zigas tries to find his real father and experiences numerous adventures. But the linguistic expressions are quite extraordinary, there are many shocking, unexpected episodes. This novel has much in common with futuristic literature. Not only the childhood and the adventures of Zigas are described non-traditionally, but also the description of the relationship between his parents. Great attention is paid to the mother. The author describes her character, feelings and emotions. Quite a strong influence from folk-lore can be felt, some situations are borrowed from the folk fairy-tales. This novel is an interesting experiment, combining folk-lore with SF. Words and their meanings are being played around with. And, of course, freedom is given to imagination, both the author's and the reader's, as the novel has no clear ending.
In recent time, the young writer Gediminas Kulikauskas (born in 1976) has been quite active. Presently he is studying history. His short stories are being published in various magazines. The characteristic feature of his short stories is an unexpected ending. The young author tries his abilities in SF and in the genres of fantasy and horror, too. He is perhaps the only one among the young writers who obeys the requirements of the traditional short story. Strange, but it is this feature that distinguishes him from the other young writers.
From the above it may be clear that Lithuanian SF of the period 1985 - 1995 is not very voluminous, but quite varying. The older generation of writers still holds on to their creative principles.They do not try any new methods, and they are still devoted to SF.
The situation of the younger generation of writers is more complicated. No succession can be felt: the young writers have adopted nothing of the experiences of the older writers. They are looking for their own methods and ways of expression, experimenting quite bravely with the form and plot. Perhaps such a break-off can be explained by the change of scene in Lithuania. Being incorporated as a province in the USSR, Lithuania didn't yield any great writers, able to influence the development of SF (as some of the Russian SF writers living in Moscow were). There were simply no possibilities. Now, when Lithuania is an independent Republic, we can hope to yield some original Lithuanian SF writers. Maybe some day their pieces of creative work can be compared to the most famous works of the SF writers in the rest of the world.